Souper Soup for when You're Sick

So I should start off by saying that the ingredients in this recipe cyan be adjusted or changed because, as the title says, this is a Souper Soup for when You're Sick- and when you're sick you can't be bothered to have specific ingredients.

Ingredients

1-2 whole heads of garlic- Cloves separated, smashed, and peeled 
1-2 Quarts of chicken stock/ vegetable stock/ water (or any combo of these)
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh thyme (or a sprinkle of dried)
1/2 hot pepper, diced
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 cups cooked pasta (real semolina is best)
1-2 eggs
dash wine vinegar
Rosemary salt
Pepper

Combine stock, garlic cloves, bay leaf, thyme, hot pepper, carrots, and half of the onion and simmer, covered for 30 minutes.

Add remaining onion, celery and pasta to the pot. Cook for 10 more minutes. Meanwhile, separate the eggs into whites and yolks. Beat the whites. Slowly drizzle into pot while whisking soup. Now mix vinegar with yolks. Whisk this into the soup. Cook for another 3 minutes.

Serve hot and season.

Honey Ginger (Lemon) Chicken

"WHAT!?", you ask, "Another new blog post? Does this make three in the same week? After months without one?!"

"Yes, Dear follower. It is true."

Last night, after nearly choosing to order pizza, I regained control of the need to eat everything in the house before we go to San Diego next Tuesday impulse and made a delicious, and huge, fall dinner.

On the menu:
Homemade "harvest grain" bread (see crusty boule recipe on this blog)
Roased Local Carrots and Local Celeriac with Maple Syrup (below)
Garlic Mashed Local Red and White Potatoes
Spicy, Garlicky Local Collards (below)
Honey Ginger (lemon) Chicken Breasts with Preserved Lemons (below)

The Recipes: 

Honey Ginger (lemon) Chicken Breasts (adapted from this recipe from Simply Recipes)


Marinade

• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp sherry
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns, ground

Chicken

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 Tbsp Olive oil
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced
• Salt and pepper
• 1 Tbsp Sugar, to sprinkle

1 Preheat oven to 390°F. Warm the honey, stir in the sherry, ginger and pepper. Place marinade and chicken in a ziplock bag, coat chicken with marinade. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2 Heat olive oil in a large frying pan at medium high heat. Sear the chicken until golden.

3 Place lemon slices in a roasting pan. Lay the chicken pieces on top. Brush with the marinade. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and bake until done, approximately 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle sugar on top of chicken breasts and broil for 5 minutes, until sugar is carmalized. Remove and let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Pour drippings from pan over chicken breasts. Serve with some of the lemons and preserved lemons.

Roasted Carrots and Celeriac (Recipe adapted from Notes from a Maine Kitchen (2011) Kathy Gunst)

Carrots, Peeled and ends removed
Celeriac, Peeled and cut into rods
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
maple syrup

Arrange carrots and celeriac rods on baking sheet. Drizzle oil over vegetables, season, and toss.
Roast at 400 for 15 minutes. Toss
Roast another 10 minutes. Drizzle maple syrup over vegetables. toss
Roast another 5-10 minutes.

Spicy and Garlicy Collards (Recipe completely made up)

Collards, washed and roughly chopped (remove tough stems through leaves)
2 tbs. bacon grease, butter, or olive oil
2 cloves garlic, grated
2 tbsp. red pepper flakes
1 tbsp. grated ginger
1/2 C. white wine
salt and pepper

Add fat (grease, butter, or oil) to large saute pan. Heat to medium high. Add collards and cook, stirring, 5 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, ginger, and wine. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until wine evaporates or reduces. Season. Remove from pan into serving bowl using tongs, slotted spoon, or fork (to leave any extra wine in the pan).

Baked Eggs Du Jour

I think I have a new favorite go-to recipe. For awhile it was breakfast sandwiches (that had to have avocado), at another time it was fajitas, now, I think it is Baked Eggs. There is so much that is beautiful about this simple recipe. 1. It only takes around 15 minutes. 2. You can use whatever vegetables are in the fridge (or in warmer seasons- garden).

I found the recipe first in Food and Wine magazine (link here) and I even had some amazing Hen of the Wood mushrooms but I made risotto (which was amazing) but I didn't make it. I kept thinking about it, though. Then, to top everything off, someone mentioned the recipe to me and how delicious it was. I didn't have mushrooms so I googled Baked Eggs and found many recipes. One that looked especially good included bacon, green onions, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese (recipe here). Basically, what I learned was that you can basically use anything you have.

My recipe:

1 handful sliced leeks
1/4 green bell pepper, chopped
Splash of Soy Sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
Small Handful Spinach, chopped
Few Basil Leaves, chopped
Small crumble of Cheddar Cheese
1 Egg
Sriracha

Heat oven to 350.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in saute pan. Add leeks and bell pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes. Stir in a splash of soy sauce. Add garlic and cook for a minute, season. Remove from the heat and stir in cheese, spinach and basil.
Pour veggies into a ramekin. Make a small well in the middle and crack and egg into it.
Bake for 5 minutes. Then Broil for 5 minutes.
Add some sriracha for spice. 

Serve with toasted baguette.

Sweet Potato and Corn Chowder

We arrived back home in Vermont last night from a weekend away in Geneva, NY. We watched the temperature drop to 41 degrees on the car thermometer and hoped that the bedroom window was closed. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Thus our house is a balmy 50ish. Since it is only the first week of October, and we are tough Vermonters, it is obviously far too early to turn the heat on. Instead a day of baking and cooking ensued. What better than homemade bread and a rich fall soup?

This week's recipe comes from the New England Soup Factory Cookbook, a book I do not own but borrow often. We had received sweet potatoes in our CSA last week so I flipped through the recipes with that in  mind. When I saw it I knew it was perfect for a day like today. Sweet Potato and Corn Chowder.

The Recipe:

Sweet Potato and Corn Chowder

7 Large Sweet Potatoes, peeled

4 Tbsp. butter

2 Cloves of Garlic, chopped

1 Spanish Onion, peeled and diced

2 ribs celery, diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

8 C. Chicken Stock

5 dashed Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 C. Packed Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp. ground coriander

2 C. Heavy Cream

1 16-oz can whole kernel corn, drained

1 16-oz can creamed corn

salt and pepper

Directions:

                Boil some salted water. Dice 2 of the sweet potatoes and add to the boiling water. Boil 10 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water and set aside.

                In a stockpot melt butter over m/h heat. Add garlic, onion, celery, carrots, and remaining 5 potatoes (chopped). Saute for 10 minutes. Add stock, bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium and simmer for about 30 minutes (or until the potatoes are soft).

                Remove from heat and stir in worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, coriander, and cream. Puree using a hand blender (immersion blender). Add the reserved sweet potatoes and both corns. Return to the heat and simmer for 5 more minutes. Season.

I served this soup with homemade multigrain "harvest" bread (I used the crusty boule recipe from this blog but mixed in 2 cups of harvest grains, kalamata olives, garlic infused oil, and marinated mozzarella balls. 

The soup was a wonderful fall soup. It was very rich with just a hint of sweetness. I found that I needed to season additionally at the table and next time would season as I added ingredients instead of just at the end. I also added a few dashes of hot sauce because I thought the soup seemed a little too sweet while I was cooking it. We will definitely be having this soup again!

Cod with Zucchini and Preserved Tomatoes

Cod with Zucchini and Preserved Tomatoes

This is a big one. Why, you ask? I'll tell you. This is the first time I have ever, EVER, cooked fish (and only the second time in memory I have eaten fish)! I never liked fish and was recently served fish by a friend, so I decided the time had come to try it again. It was ok. I could eat it. I could even like it... maybe... if I tried it again soon. And that is why I made this dish. It is from the same cookbook as the Cold Caesar Salad Soup recipe-- Artisanal Cooking.

The Recipe (with my modifications):

2 tbsp. red wine vinegar

1/2 C. plus 3 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 C. packed basil (washed, dried, and thinly sliced)

12 pieces oven dried tomatoes (see recipe below)

salt/ pepper

1 medium zucchini (cut on the diagonal into 8 pieces)

4 cod fillets (6-7 oz. each)

Whisk 5 Tbsp. oil into the vinegar to make a broken vinaigrette (it can stay separate). Stir in the basil and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

Put the zucchini in a small bowl and drizzle with 2 tbsp oil, season. Heat a heavy bottomed 10 inch saute pan over medium-high heat. Cook the zucchini in the pan, 2 minutes on each side (until lightly golden). Add to the tomato mixture.  

Pat the cod fillets dry and season. Heat a nonstick 12 inch saute pan over medium heat. Add 1/4 C. oil and heat. Add the cod, without crowding the pan and cook 3-4 minutes on one side, flip and cook for an additional minute. Place the fish over the tomato mixture. Spoon some of the vinaigrette over the fish. 

Preserved Tomatoes:

6 plum tomatoes

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

2 thyme leaves

salt

Preheat oven to 200. Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Cut halves in half again. Toss tomato quarters with the other ingredients. Place tomatoes onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet and bake until dry but supple (2 hours).

Remove from oven and allow to cool until you can handle them. Remove peels. If saving the tomatoes refrigerate, covered with oil, in an airtight container.

Cold "Caesar Salad" Soup

I first saw this recipe while flipping through my favorite cookbook (of the moment), Artisanal Cooking, by Terrance Brennan and Andrew Friedman, and decided to remember it for the summer. Well, we got a full head of romaine lettuce in our CSA this week so I decided the time had come to try this unique recipe.

Cold "Caesar Salad" Soup

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 C. Spanish onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
2 teaspoons, plus 1 pinch, salt
3 C. chicken stock
1 lb. Romaine Lettuce (about 1 head), cleaned and coarsely chopped
1/4 C plus 2 tablespoons finely grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
4 (preferably salt packed) Anchovy fillets, soakedm drained and patted dry (optional)
1/4 C. plus 2 tablespoons EVOO
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Parmesan and Black Pepper Croutons (Recipe follows)

Heat olive oil in heavy-bottomed stock pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and a pinch of salt and cook until soft but not browned (4 minutes). Add chicken stock and boil over high. Lower the heat and simmer until the onions are tender (15 minutes).

Meanwhile, fill a large bowl (I used the sink) with ice water.

Raise the heat to high and return the stock pot to a boil. Add the romaine lettuce and let boil for 4 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and add 1/4 C. cheese, 2 tsp. salt, and the anchovies (I left these out). Puree in batches, slowly adding the EVOO in a smooth stream. Transfer the mixture to a stainless steel bowl and set the bottom of the bowl in the ice water. Stir the soup to cool quickly.

Refrigerate the soup for up to 3 hours. Stir in the lemon juice right before serving.

Serve in chilled bowls. Garnish with croutons and 2 tbsp. cheese.

Parmesan and Black Pepper Croutons

Ingredients:

2 C. 3/4 in. cubed country bread or baguette
1 tbsp. EVOO
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tsp. grated garlic
1/4 tsp. plus a pinch salt
2 tbsp. finely grated paramesan cheese
1/2 tsp. fresh black pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Put the bread cubes in a mixing bowl and set aside.

Warm the oil and bitter in a sauce pan over low heat. Add garlic and salt and cook until melted but not brown. Pour over bread cubes and stir to coat evenly. Add cheese and black pepper, stirring.

Spread cubes in 1 layer onto baking sheet and bake 5-6 minutes. The cubes should be golden-brown and crisp on the outside but chewy on the inside.

Review:

My expectations for this soup were not high though I was super intrigued by it. The blurb in the cook book above the recipe reads, "Soups fashioned from leafy greens are nothing new; spinach and escarole have been the basis of any number of examples. But you might be surprised at how well romaine works in this context and how naturally anchovy, lemon juice, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and black pepper fit in."
I hoped to be surprised.

The soup was, as you would expect with a soup made primarily our of lettuce, very green. It was also extremely salty. I did add a little extra salt, to make up for not using the salt-packed anchovies, something I will definitely scale back on the next time I make this recipe. Another change I plan to make is to add some Worcestershire sauce, since this is a key ingredient in my Caesar Salad dressing. 

So yes, this is a recipe I am going to attempt again- I am still intrigued and hoping to be surprised. The croutons, however, were amazing!!! I do love homemade croutons.

Spinach Borsetti in White Wine Butter Sauce

What!? Two food blog posts in 1 week! Obviously the school year has ended and Rachel has nothing to do!

When I have a whole day to myself at home, with little else to do, I often make pasta. I nearly always go into the pasta making adventure thinking I will make ravioli and then either end up making fettuccine or some other form of filled pasta, like tortellini or borsetti (little purses).
When I decided, today, that I wanted to make ravioli I joked that since we have so much kale and spinach in our CSA I should make that into the filling, then I realized spinach is actually a very common ravioli filling... woops. So, of course, I used spinach and kale in the filling!

Homemade Sheet Pasta:

4 Eggs
3 1/2 C. Flour
1 Tsp-tbsp. water (depending on the size of your eggs)
salt
chili pepper

Place all of the ingredients in a kitchenaid with the flat attachment. Mix on speed 2 for 30 seconds (until flour isn't poofing out). Then attach the dough hook and mix at speed 2 for 2 minutes. Hand knead to really incorporate all of the flour. If the dough is sticky add a little more flour. If it is brittle and falling apart, add just a tiny big of water (sometimes I wet my hands and then knead the dough- that is how little water it takes). Cover the dough with a dry cloth and let sit for 15 minutes.

Form the dough into a log. Cut off sections about 1/2 inch thick and run through the pasta sheet kitchenaid attachment on setting 1. Fold the dough and run through, repeatedly, on setting 1 until you get a long fairly rectangular sheet of pasta roughly the width of the kitchenaid attachment. Then run the pasta through on setting 2. Continue until you get to setting 6. Run the pasta through at least twice on setting 6. Lightly flour the long sheet of pasta and set aside. When all of the pasta is rolled cut each long strip into 4 inch by 4 inch squares. Allow the squares to dry slightly on towels or a drying rack (leave our for no more than 1 hour! Refrigerate or freeze within an hour if you are not ready to cook them!)

Pasta filling:

1 C. Ricotta Cheese
1 lb. of Spinach and Kale (mixed, chopped)
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 tsp. Dried Red Chili Flakes
4 Garlic Cloves (minced)
2 Shallots (minced)
2 Tbsp. Herbes de Provence (or any dried herb medley) 
1 Cooked Chicken Breast (cubed)
4 Tbs. Mixed Fresh Herbs (chopped)
1/4 C. Parmesan Cheese
Salt, Pepper

Place the ricotta in a coffee filter over a mug or bowl and allow any liquid to drain.
Place the spinach and kale on a paper towel, lightly salt, and wrap to allow extra moisture to drain (This will help your filled borsetti to not open when you boil them!)

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Add garlic, shallots, and chili flakes. Cook until fragrant. Squeeze any excess moisture out the spinach and kale and add them to the saute pan, add the dried herbs. Once the spinach has just wilted remove from the heat and add the chicken, fresh herbs, and both cheeses. Stir all together. Season and stir again.

Allow the filling to cool slightly (so you don't have a blender explosion). Working in batches, if necessary, blend the filling so that it is slightly chunky (just slightly more chunky than canned tuna fish). Scoop the blended filling into a zip-lock bag. Cut one bottom corner of the zip-lock bag at a diagonal so that the opening is slightly less than 1/4 in. Congratulations! You just made your own pastry bag (and it is even better because you don't have to wash it- they are the worst things ever to wash!)



White Wine Butter Sauce:

1 Tsp. Olive Oil
2 Garlic Cloves, grated or minced
2 Shallots, minced
1 Tsp. Dried Red Pepper Flakes
1 Tsp. Dried Herb Medley (same one you used in the pasta)
1 C. White Wine
1 Tbsp. Butter
1 Tbsp. Flour
2 Tbsp. Ricotta
1 Tbsp. Parmasean
Salt, Pepper

In a saute pan heat the oil. Add the garlic, shallots, pepper flakes, and dried herbs. When fragrant add the wine and let reduce for 5 minutes. Whisk in the butter. When the sauce shows it's first sign of darkening whisk in the flour. Remove from heat, whisking, until the temperature cools slightly and the sauce thickens. In a separate bowl whisk the ricotta, Parmesan and seasoning (I actually whisked in some creme fraiche to make it a little smoother).

Spinach Borsetti  (Little Purses) in a White Wine Butter Sauce

Putting it all together:

Arrange your workstation so that you have the pasta squares, a small bowl of water and a small brush, the "pastry bag" of filling, and a clean space. Lay 1 pasta square in the clean space and very slightly wet two edges of the pasta. Pipe a small amount of filling into the middle of the pasta square. Fold the two dry edges onto the wet edges of the pasta, carefully squeezing out any air. Thoroughly pinch the edges together. Now you have ravioli. To make borsetti (little purses) fold the two corners along the folded edge together and also fold the top corner down to meet them. Pinch all three corners together. Place finished pasta on a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap. Continue making pasta and placing it on the plastic wrap.

Bring two large pots of salted (more salt than you think you should use!) to a boil and then turn the heat down so they are barely simmering. Place the White Wine Butter Sauce in a large saute pan over low heat on a back burner. Place 5-10 borsetti in each pot and cook for about 5 minutes (less for the first few rounds, since they will continue cooking in the sauce). With a slotted spoon or skimmer remove the borsetti and place into the saute pan, whatever extra pasta water caught in the pasta will help thicken the sauce.

Once all of the pasta is cooked and into the sauce pan add the ricotta mixture, carefully stir, add some extra chopped fresh herbs, and serve!

I've made some revisions to the recipe, based on how it turned out last night. As you can see last night I didn't stir in the ricotta mixture, and instead plated them next to each other on the plate- not a great idea. Definitely stir it in. Another difference is that I was planning to serve this with a homemade tomato sauce and then realized I had a summer squash I wanted to use, too. but that would have been too chunky of a sauce for a filled pasta! I want you to be able to taste all of the wonderful filling ingredients! So I started the tomato sauce by heating olive oil and adding lots of cherry tomatoes. Once the tomato skin charred a little, and got all wrinkly, I added white wine to the pan, so the tomatoes were half covered. Then I added lots of last years "Herbes de Vermont" (a homemade play on herbes de provence made from herbs from my garden). At the last minute I added sliced garlic, shallots, fresh herbs and spinach, to mimick the filling. I served this as a side with the dinner, but poured the wine and oil from the pan into the White Wine Butter Sauce so that it had that wonderful tomato, squash, herb flavor. I think the way I have transcribed the recipe above will suffice, though it will not have the tomato flavor.

They were wonderfully delicious! I often make filled pasta with goat cheese instead of ricotta, because I love goat cheese, but this time went with ricotta. I am getting so hungry writing this-- good think I have the leftovers of this dish and will be eating them for lunch in about 20 minutes! Yum!